Smartphones prices They have shot In the last three years, to the point that the mid -range It is close (or above) of 400 euros, the medium-high is around 700 euros, and the devices Flagship They touch the 1,500 euros. Figures that not all users are willing to assume.
Given this reality, brands have adopted a paradoxical strategy: setting high initial prices and then compensating with aggressive offers. The problem arises when those “launch promotions” actually reveal the real price that the product should have had from the beginning.
Xiaomi started the way. The price cycle of any product usually (or used) to be quite evident. A high initial starting price for the first remittances that, as the months passed, were decreasing either by official decrease of the PVP itself or by point offers.
Xiaomi was a pioneer in popularizing the concept of Early Bird (or “presale offer”), with initially attractive prices that, over time, became the official PVP of the product. The logic is clear: to capture early sales, keep the price high for months and reactivate demand with discounts at the end of the device’s life cycle.
The rest joined, differently. As the price of the devices has been increasing, manufacturers have been looking for alternatives to make their devices in the launch more attractive. Some did it imitating Xiaomi with lower launch prices, As Realme.
Others (not a few), did it by giving it headphones or smart watches. And others, as an honor, through almost all possible options: charger gift, replacement service, cover and coupon of 300 euros.
To the point of the absurd. In the mid -range it is perfectly understandable that, if a phone costs 350 euros, you can buy it on launch offer for 300.
The point is that in a high -end the strategy is not so simple. Manufacturers, on the one hand, have the “obligation” to launch their products to a high PVP. It is a marketing strategy rather than a real price. If the reference mobiles cost 1,400 euros, yours “cannot” cost 900 euros, although that is really the PVP you want to sell it.
This generates such curious situations as seeing a telephone of 1,300 euros with a discount coupon of 300 euros instead of launching it at the 1,000 euros that it really costs, or telephones such as the I live x200 prowhich came to the market at 1,299 euros and, just a week later, they “reduced” to 1,199 euros. There is no reduction, that is its real price.
The consequences for users. This situation has led us to a market where official prices are, in many cases, a strategic fiction. The “offers” are not real discounts, but adjustments to achieve the value that the product should have from the beginning.
For the consumer, this translates into an obligation to navigate between promotions and some artificial inflation, until finding the exact point in which he is making a purchase for the real value of the product.
Solution? Never buy from PVP. Take advantage of the initial offers, wait a few weeks or observe the evolution of that starting price until it stabilizes in its royal strip is usually the best option.
Image | Xataka